Above: Elfs are, just as kids, rather small puppets, at least comparatively to Santa and other adults.

Elfs are commited to their work, dead-serious, without expression on their faces or even blinking in general. But it's their hands that did most of the work. I've tried with more durable latex hands, but those couldn't achieve firm grip onto whatever they're about to hold. So I had to go with plasticine hands in most cases. This meant lots of remodeling, lots of replacement hands, etc, so I came up with quick solution, faster than casting from the rubber molds, which I didn't make in that size, anyway. I've prepared in advance set of hand molds for adults and another one for kids, but that size looked ridiculously small for Elfs. My "on-the-spot" solution was one sheet-plastic cut-out in form of hand, that works for both left and right hands, to produce plasticine copies in limitless quantities. The resulting hands were flat, and with all the fingers connected, so additional modelling was nevertheless required, but that wasn't as time consuming as it sounds.